Help with LK Appalacian Terrain Mod

[Jsthreadgill]

I'm trying to use the Mac version of the mod Lowkee33 created but whenever I start a city in Mayor mode the game freezes. I've made sure that the graphics are rendering from the hardware and tried removing all other plugins. I also have the dependencies and followed the "installation" instructions... :/

[mgb204]

Are you running SC4 on a Mac or PC?

If the terrain of your map is higher than the MaxTerrainHeight setting in the terrain controller then it will CTD, do you have a lot of high mountains in your region? I think the default setting would be around 2000m but I remember there are different files with other settings that can be selected as part of the install. An easy way to test this would be to create a new region, make it totally flat and see if it loads, if you still get a CTD then you need to check for conflicts... Whilst I think about it, if you didn't run the installer, check you only installed one variant of this mod, the installer/archive contains more than one Terrain controller with different configurations and only one of these can be installed.

CTD's can also be caused by conflicting mods, if there is another terrain mod installed, the game crashes. You could try renaming your plugins folder, creating a new folder called Plugins and only install the terrain mod in this folder (nothing else), load SC4 and see if the results are different, don't forget to use a new "Test" region when checking this. If it won't work when nothing else is installed and you are sure you've not accidentally doubled up on Lowkee's files, then I'll go with my first hunch, I suspect you may not be able to render HD graphics...

Firstly note that Hardware rendering is not enough to make HD mods work, it needs to be DirectX rendering, not OpenGL (in my experience at least), given that the DirectX API is not part of Mac OS (I think I can make that leap confidently, but correct me someone if I'm wrong) this simply may not work on a Mac. Have you successfully managed to get other HD content to work properly, such as Automata or Rock/Beach mods in the past?

If none of this helps find the problem it would be useful to know what O/S you are using, which renderer is set (Direct X or OpenGL) and what Graphics card you have also.

[Jsthreadgill]

I'm running the most recent Aspyr release on a 2013 Macbook Pro using OSX Mavericks. I've taken out all plugins except the terrain mod (which contains only one of the supplied .dat files and it's supporting files as per installation instructions) and created a new region for testing. I then loaded a new city and the game runs fine in God Mode. I can change the terrain height and do all the same terraforming as with other mods. I can also begin the city in mayor mode but so long as it's paused. I can place buildings and roads with no problem. The issue come when pressing play to allow time to pass. The game instantly freezes (not CTD) and then spinning color wheel of death begins. I'm then forced to "force quit" the application.

The graphics card I have is an Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

[mgb204]

If this behavior is new only since installing this terrain mod, plus it is not working as a standalone plugin (so we know there isn't a conflict) then the terrain mod must be causing the lockups. This can be verified by removing it (reverting to your old mod) and confirming everything works again.

I can't say if there would be some problems with the Aspyr release that causes this behavior, but it's possible?

Might be worth trying another HD Terrain mod to see if you get different results, if they all cause the lockup, then it would strongly support the can't render HD theory. Gobias has two of the top of my head, Berner Oberland and Sudden Valley, if either of these work, then maybe something else is causing the lockups.

[Indiana Joe]

It's been reported before that the Aspyr Mac port is incompatible with HD texture plugins.  As well as some other plugins.